The preseason is now over, and the Red Wings have until Tuesday to get their final roster set ahead of Friday night’s season opener.
The purge has begun, as 3 players were put on waivers today. Brian Lashoff, Andy Miele and Mitch Callahan have all been placed on waivers with the intention of sending them down to Grand Rapids. We will find out by noon tomorrow whether anyone put in a claim or whether they will become Griffins.
Of the 3, either Miele or Callahan could potentially be claimed by a team looking to add depth. While neither has done enough to crack the Red Wings’ lineup, Miele was a point-per-game player last year in the AHL and Callahan has a reputation for being a grinder who could get 4th line minutes on a team looking to build with younger guys. Lashoff is probably a safe bet to head to Grand Rapids, but stranger things have happened.
Losing Miele or Callahan could hurt the Griffins, but ultimately they aren’t players that are going to matter in the long run for Detroit. These were expected moves, and more will be coming. The Wings have a couple of more days to make the tough decisions, specifically on whether Dylan Larkin will start the year in Detroit or Grand Rapids.
[Update: The Wings released a host of other moves, including players sent down and put on IR]
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today assigned forwards Andreas Athanasiou, Louis-Marc Aubry, Tyler Bertuzzi, Colin Campbell, Anthony Mantha, Zach Nastasiuk, Tomas Nosek and Eric Tangradi and defensemen Nick Jensen, Robbie Russo and Ryan Sproul to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and assigned goaltender Jake Paterson to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye. The club also released forward Mark Zengerle and defenseman Scott Czarnowczan from their tryout agreements.
Additionally, the Red Wings placed Pavel Datsyuk, Danny DeKeyser (retroactive to Sept. 30), Darren Helm (retroactive to Sept. 18) and Alexey Marchenko (retroactive to Sept. 28) on seven-day injured reserve.
The Red Wings’ active roster currently stands at 27 players.
